The present invention relates to an improved head to be used on a standard 429 or 460 Ford block, as shown in the above-identified article, to convert this standard block into a competitive racing engine and it will be described with particular reference to this use; however, the head has general application and can be used to convert various existing blocks into high performance internal combustion engines for use in competition or other high performance situations, such as large trucks.
There is a substantial demand for high performance heads to convert existing standard blocks into competitive or high horsepower engines; however, these heads have generally involved hand-made structures with porting plates and auxiliary machined components which are so expensive that low budget racing teams or racing enthusiasts can not afford such heads. Such people do not have the resources and machinery for producing such competitive heads. In addition, there is a great demand for a head that can be mass produced for converting existing gasoline using blocks into high horsepower engines to compete with diesel engines in generators and large trucks. Consequently, there is a substantial need for a high production head which can be cast and sold, with appropriate machining for valves, valve seats, etc., which head will be as competitive as specially produced heads, but without requiring the expense and facilities heretofore needed in producing custom heads. Such a high production head has not been heretofore possible because the existing techniques in head designs were such that they could not be incorporated into the limited space available in a mass produced head for use on a standard engine block. Increasing intake and exhaust valve sizes and porting within the constraints of a standard mass produced head resulted in substantial eddy current disruption of flow to and from the combustion chamber within the head, whether the head was a hemi or wedge. These eddy current flow areas caused some precipitation of atomized fuel from the entraining air on intake, and caused substantial back pressure during the exhaust cycle of the internal combustion engine. Further, to increase the compression of the head, a necessity for competitive heads and some high production heads, the valves often were closely adjacent the cylinder walls to cause a shrouding effect so that there was uneven flow around the valves as they were opened for intake or exhaust. Attempts to crowd high flow passages into a limited amount of available metal of a cast head, cause uneven flow around the heads, areas of low velocity to allow fuel separation and limited volumetric capacity on both intake amd exhaust. Thus, the gases limited the effect of having the valves operate rapidly (over 5000 RPM) and with high lift cams. All of these limitations prevented efforts to produce a standard, high production competitive internal combustion engine head of the wedge-type for use with the many cast engine blocks now existing, especially for 460 Ford, 385 series engines.